Chapter 709 - 7: Good Heavens, They’re Bringing in AI

Chapter 709: Chapter 7: Good Heavens, They’re Bringing in AI

After a moment of thought, Tian Kui sped past it and continued his search.

At the same time, high up in the sky, Teddy was also looking down over the entire landscape.

With eyes comparable to a military reconnaissance camera, he could spot every small animal on the ground with a single sweep.

He had been following Tian Kui at first and had also seen his encounter with the strange bird.

Glancing at it, Teddy muttered to himself.

’It’s a rare one, all right. Never seen anything like it.’

After a moment, Teddy dived down, flew close to the running Tian Kui, and chirped twice.

’Stop running and take a break.’

Tian Kui glanced up at Teddy. He didn’t understand the words, but he could roughly guess what Teddy was squawking about.

’He probably wants to slack off.’

He barked once and shook his head.

’Idiot, I’m wearing the helmet.’

Tian Kui knew that Shen Xin could track his location through the helmet. If he slacked off and stopped moving, Shen Xin would know immediately.

Teddy flew closer, keeping pace with him, and continued to squawk.

He felt that Tian Kui hadn’t understood what he meant.

’I know the helmet has a tracker. What I mean is, I’ll give you my helmet, and you can run around with it.’

Tian Kui didn’t understand and couldn’t be bothered to figure it out. He was completely focused on his work.

Their exchange fruitless, a frustrated Teddy flapped his wings and flew off, thinking that if this had been Tiger Stripes, he would have handed over his helmet without even needing to be asked.

Meanwhile, back in town, Shen Xin was completely swamped.

At first, Shen Xin had thought that since these were police dogs he had trained himself, they would be obedient enough.

But he had overlooked one problem: this mission required them to aimlessly search for a potential target without a scent source.

So the police dogs themselves were confused.

When thrown into a vast, unpopulated area where even humans would get disoriented and struggle to tell north from south, the dogs had even less of an idea of where to begin their search.

They would probably just start running in one direction.

Then, as they ran, the terrain might change, or they might have a sudden whim and change direction, running farther and farther until they went out of bounds.

And as for the Ravens flying in the sky, it wasn’t like there was a line drawn around the area or an electric fence that would give them a little zap to let them know they’d crossed the boundary.

In the beginning, Shen Xin could use their GPS locations to give them remote commands within their designated zones.

But as more and more animals were deployed, Shen Xin couldn’t keep an eye on all of them by himself.

Ding Yuwei could help, and even Philips could help.

He spoke Chinese, so that wasn’t an issue.

The problem was that there were just too many teams. It was impossible to watch them all.

As a result, after a full day of searching, not a single team had managed to completely cover its designated area.

Covering even sixty percent was considered an incredible feat.

Shen Xin and the others were so busy they were dizzy, their brains practically cramping up.

"Shen Xin, this isn’t working," Ding Yuwei finally said.

It was one thing to be exhausted, but the crucial point was that they weren’t achieving their expected results.

The entire search process was chaotic, and there was a high probability of missing things.

Shen Xin rubbed his temples to clear his head. "Then what do you suggest? We use a human-wave tactic?"

"Find fifty people who speak Chinese, one to watch each team. That should do it."

Ding Yuwei nodded. That was exactly what she was thinking.

Just then, Philips, who was sipping coffee nearby, suddenly spoke up.

The brainiac’s mind was sharp; after a full day, he showed no signs of fatigue. He said, "Shen Xin, if we need that many people, it will be very difficult to find so many agents fluent in Chinese on short notice."

"This is an active case, so we can’t just go to Chinatown and grab some random person."

"What if the details of the case leak? What if people say the FBI hired foreign help to control a huge number of dogs and ravens, forcing them to work and abusing them?"

"The animal rights people would definitely show up at Quantico with picket signs."

"And as for agents within the Bureau, it really would be impossible to find so many people as fluent in Chinese as I am right now."

"So?" Shen Xin asked, turning his head.

Philips sat up straight. "I think we can use AI to help solve this problem. After all, the task itself isn’t difficult, just complex, and it requires a lot of manpower. AI is perfectly suited to solve problems of insufficient manpower."

Shen Xin’s eyebrows shot up. ’Wow, he’s even bringing up AI.’

Shen Xin had often seen it mentioned in news reports, but he didn’t know what it was actually like.

Philips said, "I have a good friend from college who works at Google, and he’s pretty high-level. They’re currently working on a large AI model called GPT. They just released the second version this past February."

"There’s also an internal version they plan to release next year, which will be a more mature version capable of handling many tasks. I think we can hand this mission over to an AI."

He gave Shen Xin a rough explanation of the specific method.

The AI would simultaneously control and monitor the fifty teams. Then, based on their GPS locations and the map, it would analyze the terrain and issue commands at any time to guide the police dogs and police birds in their search.

"You personally trained all these animals, so they’re more sensitive to your voice. You can record some simple commands, like ’Forward,’ ’Right,’ ’Turn around,’ and the AI can use your voice at any time to command them."

"This way, we can save a tremendous amount of energy. The AI might even be able to summarize and analyze data, like the work efficiency of each police dog, and then devise better search plans on its own."

Philips explained the situation in detail.

Shen Xin was dumbfounded as he listened, not realizing technology had already advanced to such a degree.

’It seems feasible,’ he thought.

There were too many teams; the human brain really couldn’t keep track of them all.

Unlike a computer, which could multitask. It could handle not just 50 teams, but 500.

Seeing that Shen Xin didn’t object, Philips immediately said, "Then I’ll contact them and see how we can design the mission workflow."

He didn’t look tired, but worrying about twenty to thirty teams at once was a bit much, even for someone with a 160 IQ.

As evening fell, all the teams were gradually recalled.

Shen Xin wasted no time starting dinner to replenish their energy.

Fortunately, not a single animal had been injured.

They were told not to attack wild animals, but that didn’t stop wild animals from attacking them.

There were coyotes in the area, and some of the dogs might not have been a match for them.

In the sky, there were eagles and falcons, and the Ravens could also become prey.

On Philips’s recommendation, the next day’s search was suspended. The FBI was quite agreeable, seeing it as a way to integrate high technology and showcase their own technological prowess.

Google didn’t object either. In a few months, they were going to release GPT-3, open up the API, and were planning for commercial use.

Being able to help the FBI solve a case with their large AI model would be good publicity for their work.

And even back in China...

Ever since he came abroad, Xu Jinguang had been keeping a close eye on things, having Secretary Chen call every day to ask about the mission’s progress.

When he learned they were planning to use AI, he grew very interested and told Shen Xin to take this opportunity to experience it firsthand, to see what this thing was really all about and to what extent it could be applied.

If it was good, it could also be promoted and applied back home.

Other countries were developing AI, and so was China.

After a few more days of rest, Philips got the program.

As for what exactly this thing was, Shen Xin, who only knew how to play computer games, honestly couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

In any case, the equipment was upgraded and expanded, with several large screens now in place.

And the screens were filled with English and other characters he couldn’t understand at all.

Today was the test run.

First, Shen Xin recorded the voice commands as requested.

Then, he released all the winged animals.

They were wearing smart helmets, allowing for remote command.

"It’s starting."

Philips explained the testing procedure.

The gist was that the AI had designated 50 targets and would now individually command each bird to head to a predetermined location.

If they could complete the task, it would prove the entire process was viable.

All the Ravens soared into the sky.

At almost the same instant, Shen Xin’s voice sounded in each Raven’s ear, giving a command.

Teddy heard it too. Shen Xin’s voice came through his earpiece, telling him to go right.

He turned his head and saw that all the other "lumps of charcoal" had flown off.

It was an order from Shen Xin, so Teddy had to obey. He immediately flew to the right.

A constant stream of commands sounded in his ear: "Left," "Right," "Correcting course."

It was starting to annoy Teddy. Shen Xin wasn’t usually this chatty.

But he still followed the commands, and after about ten minutes, he successfully arrived at the designated location.

Meanwhile, on the large screens, all the Ravens had reached their targets under the AI’s command.

"This counts as a success, right?" Shen Xin said, pointing at the screen.

Philips nodded. Looking at the fifty red dots, his eyes suddenly narrowed, and he sucked in a sharp breath.

’This thing is incredible.’